First Himalayan Trek : Pangarchulla
Story of first proper Himalayan trekking experience
Prologue:
Being a fairly regular trekker down in the Western Ghats of Karnataka was desperate to start off with a Himalayan Trek. I had done a fortnight long adventure camp in Solang Valley in Himachal Pradesh as a school kid, and traveled across Himalayas pretty extensively but never a proper trek. After many a delay dating back to a year plus things were finally taking a turn for the good.
So I had another friend who was itching for a Himalayan Trek (after having just returned from a US trip might I add), while I was all miserable and vacation-less since my Temple Run with Family in around the Indian Republic Day holidays. We were undecided exactly where to and there was growing uncertainty about treks in the state of Uttarakhand to the rains and forest fires and all that. One of my other friends who told me about Pangarchulla couldn’t make it due to logistical problems. Anyhow my well traveled friend booked everything up and my brother joined in, wanting a relief from his Medical Studies. So It was Me, The US Return and the Kid Brother who set sail on this odyssey.
As with most Indian trek enthusiasts, our preparations started with a pilgrimage to Decathlon, the Neighborhood French mega store for all things adventure and sports these days. So we had to buy quite a few things to be safe and secure, and buying of two of most things was pinching the pocket, this is where quite a few peeps in my circle helped me out by lending small stuff, you know who you all are Thank You!
We were late to the party had to pick mid June trek to get ourselves in enough of a physical shape to endure this (We means me when I talk about physical fitness in a negative sense). Since the US return had not experienced long train rides we decided to duke it out in the Indian Railways from Delhi-Bengaluru and vice versa.
The Story
We met up with a friend of ours in Delhi, en-route a bus journey onto Haridwar. We reached the sacred city by 5 PM and set onto a walk on the banks of river Ganga in the dusk. Having already been there a couple of times before, old memories came flooding back. It was quite surreal after taking in the place we had a road side snack or two for dinner as one must when visiting places in North India, we called it a day.
First Day was an early start, we had to make way to the Haridwar railway station to get on with the journey to the base camp. We had to travel about 290 kms to Auli, which is 11kms off of the town of Joshimath which used to a common stopover on the way to the shrine of Badrinath before the roads improved and two way traffic has become a norm. Me and my brother had been to Joshimath on our family Char Dham Yaatra some ten years previous and remembered stopping there for three hours so that we the vehicles from Badrinath can pass along, before we start. The journey ten years previous so so scary and treacherous compared to the relative breeze the current one proved to be.
Anyhow Auli is located up the mountain to where Joshimath it and is the last motorable road in that direction. We camped out there for the night, and the Elephant hill which overlooked the volley from the other face was clearly visible. Auli has some of the most pristine ski slopes and provides majestic views all across.
Here during the night we had briefing about the trek and the logistics, and we were introduced to the concept of Green Trail, which I really admire. Good job Indiahikes!
Second day we were to trek about 11/12 kms to reach our first base camp. Initial trek till lunch was pretty steep and the bright sunny morning was not helping the cause much. After a steep ascept we passed through an alpine forest cover to reach some of the best meadows I have seen till date, and very aptly reminded me of the windows XP wallpaper. During the pit stop for lunch is when we realized the vagaries of mountain climate. A cloud cover came it suddenly felt it dropped 5–10 degrees in a matter of seconds, this was followed by strong gusts of wind which brought in the rain cloud, and complaints around us which were *Why did we even get warm clothes* suddenly was feeling a world away.
We put on our ponchos and got a move on in the slight drizzle. It is very hard to trek while keeping that on, especially so where me and my brother had done poor luggage management. We were to clear a mountain slope quite close to top on a small path which could only let one person through, it was covered with grassy shrubs on both sides, tree cover was quite a way down already. This was a real scary stretch, inclines were steep and the drops were easily hundreds of feet down into a valley. We exited onto a wet marshy area which had a small pond, and we were a kilometer or so away from the basecamp and we just could not wait to get there. The last stretch was through a rocky, alpine forest with quite a few ankle twists along the way. The camp site was very unique, there were trees all around and we just had this patch of open area a few dozens of feet in dimension either direction were we could put in our tents. Once we setup in our tents we played a few games to stretch ourselves physically and it sure was a lot of fun. We had an amazing dinner with a insane secret dessert, which sent to me to bed a happy man.
Day 3, was an early start as well, get up before 5 or so, you can beat the line to the facilities and be all warmed up and ready to leave by 6–30/7. We walked some distance in the forest and come up to a great meadow again, here we could see the majestic snowy mountains across the valley in all directions. Were able to spot a few peaks, viz. Drona giri peak and the majestic Nanda Devi before the clouds decided that was enough.
We continued on to a place called *Chitra Kanta* which is the name given to any place high enough from where you can have an unbridled 360 degree view of the valley all around. Was quite a spot for a photo sessions and rest as we waited for mule caravan carrying our equipment to pass through, gave me quite the medieval Silk Road feel.
The weather went gloomy for stretches after and quite a few folks were feeling under the weather, we made our way through quite a few ridges, and even a stone bridge washed away in the cloud bursts of a few years ago en route to our camp site, where we were scheduled to spend two nights.
We had to pitch our tents under a drizzle and had to pitch them on a slope as this was not a permanent camp site yet. We had lunch and retired to our tents where we experienced an hour or so of rains and wind battering against our tents. It felt so much more melodramatic all cooped from inside compared when we finally got out. Slope meant quite a few puddles started developing inside tents of quite a few people, which added to the sick list. One of the folks, who actually bunked with us the tent past two nights started showing AMS symptoms had to be taken down to lower altitude to help him recover.
The Peak Summit day was finally here. We woke up at 2 A.M, heard me right, basically forced stuff out and in of our bodies to get ready for the peak summit, about half of which was going to be in the dark, packed a second breakfast and went on the way. We passed some really treacherous terrain the dark and made quite a bit of progress with respect to gaining height. By the time daylight had started filling in the surroundings for us, we were amazed at the height which we had gained.
Every step which we took on this summit day was telling. Telling me personally how bad a shape and rhythm of breathing I was in. At about 6–30 AM we reached the mini-pangarchulla, few hundred feet below the main peak. Since this was the end of the season, the main peak snow had melted and was now a boulder field which made passing through hazardous. There were supposed to be 35 or so peaks visible from here on a clear day, and a majestic sunrise was supposed to greet us, but snap! the clouds. We were still able to view about 10–15 peaks.
I had one of the most well deserved meals of life at the top, took a bunch of photos and started on our way back since the forecasts were of bad weathers coming in.
We passed through Kuari Pass on the way back to the base camp. Well you are welcome to let your imagination go wild as to why it is called that!
We got back to the base camp by 11. Loitered away the day chatting, taking photos, playing games.
We started the descent back the next day, which honestly was so much harder of the body than the climb. We passed directly though a few ski slopes which we all out of juice now. Pine cone forests were a mainstay after we got below the tree line. The root network system was making it hard to even keep one clean step. Found a few water streams en route where we stopped. We walked some 11–12 kms to reach a man made pathway used by villagers who aren’t served by motor-able roads. Then had to walk though a village, where I stupidly brushed against a grass which stung like a freaking scorpion and was aptly colloquially called bicchu ghaas. Man that stung for a good while, we had to walk couple of kms from the village to get back to our rides to Joshimath.
We stayed over at a hostel in Joshimath, primarily recovering and absorbing what we had just done. We got back to Haridwar the next day evening after a few vehicular glitches. Immediately boarded bus to Delhi, having not pre booked anything and it being a Friday night, had to do an UPSRTC, which was a truly out of body experience. Got into to Kashmere Gate ISBT of Delhi by around 0300, Thank you whoever thought of the Air Conditioned Terminus. Reached Nizammuddin for our train back to Bengaluru by 0530. Caught for all the lost sleep in the week in the train journey.
Epilogue:
Having tested myself to the limits of Himalayan Climb, I am really grateful for India Hikes for making as pleasant an experience as possible.
I want to experience as much hiking and trekking as I can before age starts showing.
The Himalayan Treks for me personally would continue to be the odysseys that match the intensity of what Homer described couple of millennia ago.
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